Is ReadyBoost effective?

Particularly in Windows 7, with 2gb all ready. I was thinking of getting an 8gb sandisk, to use for readyboosting, considering they are only £10. At the moment I have 2gb being used on my 4g memory stick.

It is very effective if you have less than 2GB (XP) or 4GB (Vista) of RAM.

Also, the performance increase is very substantial on laptops, since most of them typically use 4200RPM and 5400RPM hard drives instead of the much faster 7200RPM desktop drives, and because laptop RAM is more expensive than its desktop counterpart.

And please be patient instead of multiple-posting; you are getting voluntary help here. This is not a paid-for tech support forum.

Actually, the data is typically compressed in a 2:1 ratio. so you would actually be using somewhere near 1GB off the drive. You can try it with a larger drive, but IMO it will not make much difference if it's a desktop.